Worker Going On Strike Are Political Workers-Gov.Bello

The governor of Kogi State,Yahaya Bello,has said that only “political” civil servants are on strike in his state.

Civil servants in the state went on strike on September 22,saying workers were owed between two months and 21 months salaries.

Speaking with journalists on Monday in Abuja shortly after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari,Gov.Bello said “real” civil servants are reporting to work.

He also said he had cleared all the backlog of salaries he met when he assumed office in January 2016.

“Those workers that are on strike are political civil servants,the real civil servants are coming to work.
“We are trying our best to keep up with the payment of salaries.

“There is no denying the fact that the economy is biting hard everywhere and you will recall that I met four months’ salary backlog,I cleared it and today we are keeping up to date,”he said.“We are owing August and September as we speak.

“We are up to date in terms of salaries and those that come to work we shall pay them and those that don’t come to work,the no work no pay shall surely apply,”he said.

Gov.Bello said he was at the presidential villa to brief President Buhari on developments in his state.
He said the president was pleased with the briefing.
He also said President Buhari encouraged him to “keep up the good job” that he was doing in Kogi state.

Gov.Bello said his administration succeeded in tackling insecurity by at least 70 per cent.
“Security is not what you tackle once and for all,you have to continue to do your best.

“The criminals,kidnappers,armed robbers,hoodlums will always device various tactics,they may change styles we have to change along with them and be ahead of them at any point in time in order to keep Kogi state secure and Kogi is currently secure,”he said.
Governor Bello also said Kogi is politicially stable.

“Politically Kogi state is very stable is just.Few diaspora politicians that are making noise in the media and I think you can’t stop them from making noise when they want to but the reality on ground is that Kogi State is very very stable,”he said.

Gov.Bello also took a swipe at those criticising his performance in office.“It is only the blind ones that will not see what we are doing.

“First of all before you attract tourists to your state you have to secure it,there must be infrastructure and all these are being taken care of as we speak and investors are coming in in their numbers to come and invest,”he said.
He also said he runs a transparent administration by ensuring that the state accounts are published periodically.

“Very soon we are going to publish all the salaries that we have paid to workers since inception in newspapers for people to see it.

“All the noise about Kogi is not paying salaries will be in public domain,” he
said.

Responding to a recent incident in which some of his security aides molested a journalist,the governor said those concerned were being “dealt with according to the law”.